Wipeout HD pilot assist

[Frances_Penfold]

Features of Wipeout HD's pilot assist are revealed in eLhabib's most excellent interview with Tony Buckley (http://elhabib.at/2008/09/08/elhabib...re-wipeout-hd/)

Sounds like:

1. Auto-assist will automatically be turned on for players that say they are new to Wipeout.

2. Auto-assist "kicks in" only when you are about to hit a wall.

3. When auto-assist kicks in, your speed is diminished by ~5%.

Personally, I think this is a good feature to make the game accessible to newcomers. I highly doubt that newcomers are going to be beating experienced pilots either with or without the pilot assist. I guess my remaining concern is that, somehow, the pilot assist will facilitate some sort of exploit that can be used by skilled pilots-- I hope this possibility was thoroughly evaluated by game testers. I also hope that pilot assist can be disabled for online matches, if so desired by the host.

What do you guys think?

[leungbok]

Well, if auto-assist low the speed (i thought about something like that, several week's ago), i don't think good pilots will have a big interest on this feature.
Looking at El Habib's video, it seems that the auto-assist help the player to drive on the middle of the track, and you know like me, that the best trajectories are often close to the walls. So i don't think it can be a big help for the best pilots (happily).

[Rapier Racer]

It's already been said that pilot assist does not work for multiplayer mode.

[eLhabib]

It's already been said that pilot assist does not work for multiplayer mode.

Really? Where? I am still a little bit concerned about a potential exploit with pilot assist. Picture a turn like the hard hairpin left right after the long starting right at Chenghou - there's some intense braking needed at phantom speeds. If pilot assist lets you zip through the corner at 95% speed, that's still a lot faster than flying it the normal way. I guess we will only know when we get the game in our hands.
Even if it's not in mutliplayer, it could still ruin the record tables.

[Task]

And there's no way anyone's going to get a record time with pilot assist on. Did you notice when it kicks in? Before you hit the wall by a significant amount. So the track is effectively narrower with pilot assist on. The fast line typically requires the full width of the track. So with that and what leungbok pointed out, I'm not seeing a chance of exploit.

That being said, if you're bad at Phantom or something, I can see pilot assist helping you at least get _somewhere_, which I'd say is pretty damn cool!

[Rapier Racer]

Hmm a search has turned out fruitless, I heard it somewhere I know I did damn it...

[Rubix42]

I'm no Wipeout Expert, I will never challenge on the record tables, ever.

I highly doubt that any pilot assist would be exploitable to get faster times. Like in Chenghou, on that hairpin, it's an assist, but I bet it won't let you take the turn at 95%. I'd bet that it continues to lower the speed the worse you do.

[Linchpin]

I think that it is good overall .
But maybe like you say , the host should be able to set a rule that forces pilot assist off for all players .

[JABBERJAW]

When I heard about the 5 percent penalty for the assist taking you away from the wall, I was very leary, despite people saying not to be. I just did some testing on sebenco climb on phantom speed, and this assist If I were to race perfectly without, and then to race a good race with it on, would be within 3 seconds, if not closer, to my perfect race time. This is way too much of a assist. I was able to drive like a douch somewhat, and come close to my good times. Pilot assist should slow you down more IMO. Either that or you might as well use an infinite autopilot. Isn't this supposed to help people get into the game, rather than allow great (yes I mean great) records using it? Lots of people were ticked about fusion's wall riding being faster than perfect turns, what do you think of this feature now, that it shows to be very fast? opinions? Maybe a download to make it a higher percentage hit to your top speed. I think if I used this feature on on hard courses, I would do better than if it was off in multiplayer (read: not moa therma)

[kanar]

haven't practiced enough to test that, but after the incredible power of the autopilot in the turns, if the pilot assist is now a record assistant (haven't tried yet), it would be sad yes.

[eLhabib]

As someone mentioned in another thread before - just make the damn thing be gone for Phantom, maybe even Rapier. Ever seen a guy on the Tour de France with training wheels? Of course not, because as soon as you can keep your balance, you take the things off to learn how to really ride. By the time a player hits Rapier, he really should be that far in his learning curve.

What I would really like to know: can you actually beat your non-PA times with PA?

[leungbok]

Don't care Kanar, the autopilot is very powerfull, it's true, but very short and scarce (it's very strategic to use it at the best moment). But the pilot assist can't help you beat records, even in touching 10 walls in a race you're faster without. No, the problem to me, is the spirit we can meet online with kids (probably) using the pilotassist on the difficult tracks in phantom speed, instead of creating rooms in flash or rapier speed on the tracks they master. That's why i suggested to limitate the using of pilot assist at the rapier class (maybe flash, yes El-Habib).

[G'Kyl]

I agree with Al in that the assist should slow you down just a little more in order to make a significant difference for pilots who might not be able to do 4 or 5 perfect laps at tracks with lots of tight corners.

But then what really bothers me is this: What if some players turn the assist on just before they reach a critical corner - go smoothly around that corner - and turn it off again? What if some of the online records are from such players? The thought alone somewhat spoils the excitement of the competition for me. There certainly are people who simply care about being first and nothing else, I can't see why that wouldn't be happening...

[AdrenalineBurst]

We knew it would, pilot assist *cough noobs* is being abused commonly now as a way to injure None Pa's by grinding them into the wall without a care in the world of getting injured in the process.

[MadMax1978]

agreed I think PA should be baned from online play

[AdrenalineBurst]

Meh, although i'd be overjoyed if that happened they would lose to many players from what i've seen over 90% of players use it so wouldnt be to good then again they have the money lol? ,

I would be happy if they gave it a bigger penalty at the very least a 10% top speed decrease, as they have serious advantages on tracks like sebanco climb and chenghou project, i've managed to master sol 2 though dang those long turns with air breaks lol

-------------

o_O it was merged into this thread, i only put it as a seperate thread because i felt like it didnt link to well as it was more of a rant

[Lance]

There are lOts of rants in this thread.

[drenath]

After some more time in HD I really think that PA should be disabled in Rapier+, maybe even Flash+ races. Sure if you're a fantastic/seasoned pilot, you can cruise past the PA pilots, but the rest of us who aren't elite and prefer not to PA can still get stomped by newbie PA pilots. Its pretty disheartening.

Especially on some of the twisty tracks. I'm nowhere near my initial PA runs on Sebenco and I've run that course 50+ times. PA makes it a breeze to hit speed pads and BR without crash risk. I'm going to need 500 laps on this course to beat my PA times

Maybe I just really suck?

[Rapier Racer]

Heres some more.

they have serious advantages on tracks like sebanco climb and chenghou project

Well I find thats not in fact the case the only track where pilot assist users didn't fall more than 4 seconds behind me tonight was Anulpha Pass. Now I happen to love this track and it pisses me off greatly that it IS now the joke track of the game what with it being the choice track for these assholes.

I raced tonight filtering out the games so only Phantom showed, I have to say I'm actually shocked at the lack of good players and the skill gap between people from here and then everyone else. Occasionally you'll encounter a random person thats very good, but not tonight.

Every Tournament/Single race I entered at Phantom had at least 5 players and all appeared to be using PA, one tour I entered had 6 players and 12 races, they all dropped out after 2 probably because of the 13 second gap between me and them, quite annoying.

I'm still waiting for the interesting explanation as to why the host cannot disable this bug in the lobby.

[Rubix42]

I got a message saying that the person I beat by 10 seconds couldn't understand how I was so fast and already had platinum. I told him to turn off the PA. All he said in return is "how did you know"

Whatever, it's hard for a PA pilot to defeat a non-PA pilot who knows what they are doing. If it means we get more Wipeout games to play in the future, I may disagree with it, but as long as I can turn it off, I'll grin through the pain.

Plus, it's really funny to watch them fishtail the entire length of the skill cut on Anulpha Pass. Makes me chuckle everytime I see it